Page 136 of Single Teddy
“Someone wanted us to believe we’d found another stash house, but it was clear it was a trap. Which meant the second location was far more likely to be where you were.”
“So we blew up the first one to keep up the ruse and made our way to you,” Donovan added.
“Hang on. If they set a trap with the phone…” I said. “Then they knew we had cloned it.”
Wyatt shook his head with uncertainty.
“Either that or they assumed.”
“But why would they send both locations?”
“Maybe they don’t know we have access to their GhostLink,” Slade suggested.
“Or maybe they do, and they were using us,” Wyatt said. “I’m telling you. This was too easy.”
I sighed.
“You’re playing fast and loose with the word easy there, sir,” I said.
He didn’t seem to mind my challenging him, which made me stand a little taller, knowing I wasn’t talking out of my ass.
“Every time we’ve come up against these people, there’s been a whole army of them. It makes no sense that they’d put only two people on watch.”
I pondered his words for a while and replayed the conversations I’d heard back at the boathouse.
“Have you thought maybe…this Sal— What’s his name?”
“Salieri,” said everyone in the room, including Maria and Teddy.
“Have you thought about the possibility that Salieri was using you to tie up loose ends?”
“What do you mean?” Wyatt asked.
I shrugged.
“I don’t know. I think Barnes—or whatever his name—was indeed a drug dealer, but then you found the stash house a few months ago, and it’s been quiet since, right?” They nodded. “Apparently, Salieri slashed Barnes' cut in half since then, and so Barnes started doing deals on the side, cutting out Salieri. So what if?—”
“So you’re saying is…” Wyatt interjected, “Salieri found out and was trying to tie up loose ends.”
“Detective Bennet told him in no uncertain terms that he had to blow his cover to save his ass. What if he didn’t? What if Salieri made Bennet blow his cover to get rid of Barnes once and for all and get you off his tail? Now that he’s dead, his phone is useless, right?”
I didn’t know how I’d made all these connections when five minutes ago I’d still been scrambling to process what had happened to me, but when I saw them nodding along, I realized I was onto something.
I didn’t know if Salieri had planned this whole thing months in advance or if it had been spur of the moment. He couldn’t have predicted me walking up to the boys and taking them to the police. But then again, how fast can you fill a boathouse with fake cocaine on such short notice? It was probably a combination of both long-term planning and a short-termopportunity. And hell, it could have gone even better for him. He could have blown some of the guys to smithereensand stillgotten rid of Barnes. And me.
“You’re a clever guy, aren’t you?” Donovan chuckled, and I shrugged.
“I’m a teacher,” I replied.
A groan filled my eardrums, and I turned to Teddy, who was being helped into a sitting position by Azrael and Autumn.
“Teddy!” I cried and let go of everything. Salieri, Barnes, traps, and schemes, and ran to him. Ran to my Teddy. “Are you okay?” I asked and then turned to the impromptu medical team to ask them the same.
“Your boy is going to live, don’t worry. The bullet got lodged inside, but it didn’t puncture anything,” Azrael said with a big, comforting smile, and I grabbed Teddy’s hand and brought it to my lips.
“It didn’t puncture anything? What about all the blood?” I asked and kissed his knuckles.
“Bullet wounds tend to do that. It’s not always as bad as it looks.”
